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Rufus
Rufus is the friend and partner of Aloysius Knight, as well as the pilot of his plane, the Black Raven. History Early History Through unknown circumstances, Rufus joined the aerial wing of the United States armed forces, and eventually became one of the NightStalker helicopter pilots who flew Delta Force operators to their missions. While Rufus proved himself an exceptional aircraft pilot, he was teased by his fellow pilots for his awkwardness in social situations, and was often tricked with pranks which saw him being sent to briefings he wasn't meant to be at or having women act sexy towards him. The only one who didn't tease or harass him was Captain Aloysius Knight, whom he had worked with on several occasions. Knight eventually intervened by injuring the instigating pilot and threatening the other NightStalker pilots, which saw the teasing stopped. In 1998, Rufus was unknowingly the chopper pilot for a group of Intelligence Convergence Group agents within Delta, led by Wade Brandeis, who were sent to Knight's position after he reported seeing Osama bin Laden meeting with CIA operatives. Once the ICG agents arrived, they prepared to liquidate Knight and Rufus in order to keep them from talking about what they had seen, but luckily Knight saved them by firing back first, and then by barricading themselves in a lighthouse storm cellar the ICG-Delta operatives brought down on them. As the ICG framed both of them for murdering the ICG agents and turning against American interests, Rufus became Knight's bounty hunting partner. When Knight was rewarded with a test-damaged Sukhoi Su-37 for saving the life of a Russian deputy President's daughter, Rufus became the pilot for the Black Raven. In October 2003, Knight was contracted by Lillian Mattencourt to protect Shane Schofield in an international bounty hunt, with Rufus accompanying him. Scarecrow As they arrived at Schofield's location at Krask-8, Rufus and Knight noted the destruction that Schofield was notable for, caused by his encounter with Executive Solutions. As they landed, Rufus remained with the Black Raven while Knight examined the area to confirm that Schofield had already moved on. Rufus and Knight proceeded to track Schofield to the Karpalov coalmine, where Rufus dropped Knight down one of the air vents to reach Schofield. As Knight helped Schofield and his team escape from the Skorpions, Rufus noticed IG-88 taking Schofield's girlfriend, Libby Gant away, secretly dropping MicroDots onto them so that they could track them. After a last-second pick-up before the mine was destroyed, Rufus relocated the group away so that he and Knight could explain their reason for keeping Schofield alive. Tracking the IG-88 unit to a British airfield, Rufus was tasked with taking Book II and Mother to London to find out more about the bounty hunt from a Mossad agent while Knight and Schofield went after a sub-team transporting Gant and some of the bounty targets' heads to France. Shortly after dropping Mother and Book II off, Rufus and the Black Raven were detained by Scott Moseley and his men until Book II and Mother returned. With the President's blessing to use whatever resources necessary to keep Schofield alive and the U.S.'s support, Mother demanded Rufus be released so that he could transport her to rendezvous with the others in France. During the journey, when questioned why an honest guy like Rufus hung around with the reputedly volatile Knight, the pilot explained their history to Mother. As they approached the Forteresse de Valois, Book II shared with them and the others what he had discovered about Majestic-12 and their plans to start a new Cold War. Soon the pair picked up Knight, and proceeded to rescue Schofield from a French Aircraft Carrier, with Rufus utilising the Black Raven to cause as much mayhem as possible, even flying the fighter plane within the carrier's internal hanger. Soon afterwards, once Knight informed Schofield of Gant's death, Schofield demanded that Rufus land, and proceeded to try and take his own life. As Schofield and Mother fought each other, Rufus made to intervene, however Knight stopped him, saying it was for them to sort out. After Mother convinced Schofield not to give up and beat Majestic-12, Rufus proceeded to fly them to the English Chanel, where a disguised supertanker was set to launch Chameleon missiles at London, Paris and Berlin. He then proceeded to find another supertanker for use in raming the Talbot if their attempts to disarm the Chameleon failed, and set it on course with the Talbot when that plan became necessary. After picking up Schofield and Knight, Schofield revealed what he had learned about Killian's extra step to incite global anarchy by launching a Chameleon missile at Yemen. After Rufus noted that they could never reach the launch site in time on the Black Raven, Schofield had Moseley prepare a pair of X-15's for them to use, with Rufus getting the chance to pilot one of the super-fast planes. Piloting the X-15 carrying Schofield over the Mediterranean and through an aerial armada of African fighters, they discovered Killian had set off the missile early. Encouraged by Schofield to pursue the missile in flight, Rufus successfully kept the X-15 in range as Schofield disarmed the missile, being forced to eject before they crashed. Knocked unconscious, Rufus, Schofield and Knight were captured by Brandeis, who under Killian's orders, brought them back to the castle. Before they could be executed, Mother freed them, however during the battle, Rufus was shot in the back and forced to remain behind as Schofield and Knight went after Killian. Once the crisis was over, Rufus and Knight met with Mattencourt to claim their reward for keeping Schofield alive, however before she could arrange to transfer the money she was killed by Demon Larkham. Later, though both Knight and Rufus had their names cleared for the crimes ICG framed them for and had decided to remain bounty hunters, the pair accepted a new job. However, a letter from Knight to Schofield informed the Marine that if he ever needed help, both Knight and Rufus would be there to assist him. The Three Secret Cities In November 2016, Schofield contacted Knight and Rufus to request that he use Knight's debt to him to find and aid Jack West Jr. As Knight believed that the Knights of the Golden Eight had taken him to a remote Algerian mine, Rufus piloted the Black Raven to transport his friend there. After hearing internal radio chatter that another group had been captured after attempting to break in, Rufus was left onboard as Knight parachuted down into the Erebus cavern. Once Jack was retrieved, Rufus joined the Australian's team in attacking Aragon Castle from the Black Raven, destroying a railgun emplacement and dropping a pair of decoys for the Knights of the Golden Eight's torpedoes that were set to strike the castle. As Jack and his team intended to find the Three Secret Cities and overcome their defences in order to save the world from catastrophe, Rufus flew him and Knight to Santorini to seek out Poseidon's tomb. After the Trident was recovered, Rufus picked the pair up and began transporting them to Atlas to empower the weapon. However, with Sphinx threatening Lily's life if they did not empower the Mace and return it to him, Rufus was ordered to fly the Black Raven 100 miles away from the area to keep him out of the way. Some time later, after Knight and Jack arrived at the Altar of the Cosmos, Knight contacted Rufus to requested his friend to pick them up. When he did, Knight told the pilot to start flying them anywhere away from the Rock of Gibraltar, explaining that the despondent Jack was in shock upon seeing the body of his daughter after Sphinx killed her for the ritual. Personality Rufus is an honest and reliable person, and is also extremely loyal to his friends, particularly Knight. In spite of his genius-level aptitude for complex mathematical problems, which makes him a brilliant pilot, Rufus struggles with most social nicieites and finds it hard to understand some forms of humour. Even after being branded a traitor, Rufus has maintained a military formality when reporting to Knight, due to him taking comfort in the direct and familiar speech patterns. Trivia *Though unconfirmed, Rufus may have a high-functioning form of Aspergers syndrome, which for those diagnosed typically makes them find it hard to understand humour, irony and some social skills, while occasionally being notable for skills in mathematics. Category:Characters Category:Scarecrow Characters Category:Protagonists Category:U.S. Characters Category:U.S. Soldiers Category:Bounty Hunters Category:Scarecrow Category:The Three Secret Cities